Why do people spend their hard-earned cash and travel from all around the world to Seattle, just to watch other people play video games? It’s been a question on my mind ever since I first attended The International in 2015. The annual Dota 2 tournament hosted by Bellevue, Wash.-based gaming giant Valve draws in thousands from across the globe who pack KeyArena and cheer on their favorite professional gamers who are competing for a $23.9 million prize pool, the largest ever in esports history. I get why people pay big bucks to attend the Super Bowl or the World Cup. I… Read More
The most dominant team of geeks in the second season of IT Sports League softball proved to be Whitepages as they took the title last week from defending champs SimplyMeasured. The Whitepages Wombats, captained by revenue accounting manager Erin Schindler, beat SimplyMeasured 15-8 at Seattle’s Queen Anne Field and finished the season with a 9-1 record. Whitepages reached the championship game by beating a team from Quantum, 24-12. SimplyMeasured, which took the title last summer, finished with two losses this year. They beat TINYPulse 21-8 to reach the final game. Quantum beat TINYPulse 11-8 to finish third this year. TINYPulse… Read More
If you need another reminder of the massive growth of esports, head down to KeyArena in Seattle this week for The International. That’s where the most lucrative esports event of all time kicks off Monday, with the world’s top professional Dota 2 gamers duking it out in front of thousands of fans packed into a stadium more typically known for hosting traditional sporting events like basketball. But this is 2017, and professional video gaming has surged into relevance — both from a popularity and financial perspective. [Follow-up: Why people love esports: Scenes from Valve’s huge $24M Dota 2 tournament] The prize… Read More
Jimmy Shane piloted the Miss HomeStreet hydroplane to a victory in the Seafair Cup today in Seattle. Now he’ll head back to his day job: building rockets at Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. Shane’s Seafair Cup win didn’t come easy: In a thrilling final heat, Shane was passed by Andrew Tate in the Les Schwab boat on the final lap, but Tate was penalized for hitting a buoy earlier in the race. As a result, the cup was awarded to Shane and the HomeStreet team. Rocket science doesn’t come easy, either. After today’s finish,… Read More
The roar of this weekend’s Seafair hydroplane races on Lake Washington reawakens a six-decade-old Seattle tradition – but it also heralds changes for a sport that’s been compared to NASCAR on water. Seattle has been a hot spot for hydros since 1950, when a made-in-Seattle thunderboat called Slo-Mo-Shun IV set a world speed record on Lake Washington and brought the nation’s premier unlimited hydroplane race to Seattle the next year. Today, the restored wood-and-metal boat rests in Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry. Its builder, Stan Sayres, would probably still recognize the streamlined, souped-up vessels that venture forth from Stan Sayres… Read More
